Hidden under the <a href="http://inhabitat.com/grass-coated-green-roofed-parking-garage-concept-for-tokyo/">green roof </a>soccer field where the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) Trojans play all year is a three-story <a href="http://inhabitat.com/first-leed-certified-parking-garage/">parking garage</a>. Nestled into the hillside and wrapped in a perforated metal screen, the <a href="http://inhabitat.com/south-vancouvers-soaring-sunset-community-center-connects-with-nature/">Bing Thom Architects</a>-designed SAIT Parkade is as unobtrusive as it gets. On top of the parking garage, uber low-pro, the natural-ventilation encouraging metal screen features a beautiful design of billowy clouds by Vancouver artist <a href="http://www.ombrae.com/">Roderick Quin</a>. The giant piece of art is practically unknown, but is a hidden gem that interacts with the sunlight and helps the parkade blend in with the sky.

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SAIT Parkade-Bing Thom Architects

Bing Thom was asked to design a parking structure for the university that wouldn't take up valuable campus space, but also centralize the parking and help reinvigorate the campus.

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SAIT Parkade-Bing Thom Architects

The solution was to place the parking garage underneath the existing playing field, burying the garage partially into a hillside.

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SAIT Parkade-Bing Thom Architects

This places the playing field on the same level as the gothic Heritage Hall – one of the centerpieces of the campus – so that the building does not obstruct views of the historic 1921 building.

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SAIT Parkade-Bing Thom Architects

Soaring twin glass pyramids rise up from the garage, providing and atrium and staircases down into the parking levels.

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SAIT Parkade-Bing Thom Architects

The east and south facades of the garage are left exposed to pull in natural daylighting and ventilation in order to reduce energy use from mechanical systems.

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SAIT Parkade-Bing Thom Architects

To facilitate the ventilation and daylighting, but also make the structure more aesthetically pleasing, a giant metal screen encloses the parking garage.

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SAIT Parkade-Bing Thom Architects

Artist Roderick Quin and his company Ombrae oversaw the design and fabrication of the metal shade screen.

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SAIT Parkade-Bing Thom Architects

Thousands of holes are strategically punched through the metal creating a giant pixelated art work that depicts and blends in with the Alberta sky.

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SAIT Parkade-Bing Thom Architects

From above the playing field is clearly visible, but it is not nearly as obvious that there is a parking garage below.

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SAIT Parkade-Bing Thom Architects

Bing Thom of BTA explains, “By siting the building carefully, we were able to preserve a critical landscape and visual relationship between the campus and downtown Calgary while respecting the historic heart of the SAIT Polytechnic campus.”

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SAIT Parkade-Bing Thom Architects

“Through our design, we tried to humanize what might otherwise be just an enormous, soulless structure,” Bing Thom explains.

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SAIT Parkade-Bing Thom Architects

“What we’ve done, essentially, is turned a quotidian building type into something that becomes part of the landscape in a simple and elegant way,” states Thom.

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SAIT Parkade-Bing Thom Architects

East and South elevations.

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SAIT Parkade-Bing Thom Architects

Hidden under the green roof soccer field where the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) Trojans play all year is a three-story parking garage. Nestled into the hillside and wrapped in a perforated metal screen, the Bing Thom Architects-designed SAIT Parkade is as unobtrusive as it gets. On top of the parking garage, uber low-pro, the natural-ventilation encouraging metal screen features a beautiful design of billowy clouds by Vancouver artist Roderick Quin. The giant piece of art is practically unknown, but is a hidden gem that interacts with the sunlight and helps the parkade blend in with the sky.